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My talk is Empire Shoots Back: Post-coloniality in Bollywood Film https://histfest.com/products/sunny-singh
And to give you a taster, here is a thread of some of the things I’ll be talking about. And it is a thread of.......
A THREAD OF BOLLYWOOD SONGS! https://twitter.com/HistFestUK/status/1065873496583090176
And to give you a taster, here is a thread of some of the things I’ll be talking about. And it is a thread of.......
A THREAD OF BOLLYWOOD SONGS! https://twitter.com/HistFestUK/status/1065873496583090176
Shall we talk white passing, ‘white face’, gender and sexual agency? And because it is my current earworm, shall we talk #Suraiyya from #ThugsOfHindostan
Much to be considered on the role of the Empire in the transformation of the tawaif to the nautch girl. Representations in Bollywood form a fascinating postcolonial view of women, female agency, sex work and morality (-ies).
A taster for academics here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02759527.2014.11932977
A taster for academics here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02759527.2014.11932977
Or hey, shall we talk even older history? The Delhi Sultanate and queering of the first Muslim woman empress of Delhi?
Shall we talk Razia Sultan?
Be grateful if understand Urdu. That is one sexy batch of lyrics!
Shall we talk Razia Sultan?
Be grateful if understand Urdu. That is one sexy batch of lyrics!
Btw one of my major gripes re Deepa Mehta’s Fire is the line ‘there is no word in our language for what wekre doing’ (or words to this effect).
My favourite classical Sanskrit term for a lesbian lover is ‘svayamvarasakhi’ so svayam (self chosen) + vara (spouse) + sakhi (friend)
My favourite classical Sanskrit term for a lesbian lover is ‘svayamvarasakhi’ so svayam (self chosen) + vara (spouse) + sakhi (friend)
I will be adding more to this thread in the next two weeks in the run up to @HistFestUK but TODAY, go grab #BlackFriday cut price tickets.... https://twitter.com/histfestuk/status/1065956669740466176?s=21
And yes, the explanation on that is Sanskrit translation is not ideal but it comes from two ideas.
1. ‘svayamvara’, a tradition/ritual where women (generally royal/noble) chose their husbands from a gathering eligible bachelors.
Imagine #TheBachelorette set in ancient India!
1. ‘svayamvara’, a tradition/ritual where women (generally royal/noble) chose their husbands from a gathering eligible bachelors.
Imagine #TheBachelorette set in ancient India!
They even had flowers. Except it was a garland that the woman put around the man she picked.
Btw the men had to compete and show off on all major ‘royal’ skills first. Riding, archery, swordfighting, the whole palaver.
Guess women even back then liked men fit, hot and sweaty
Btw the men had to compete and show off on all major ‘royal’ skills first. Riding, archery, swordfighting, the whole palaver.
Guess women even back then liked men fit, hot and sweaty
And 2. Sakhi. Female friend. Intimate, loyal, loved. A sakhi is not necessarily a sexual partner but someone close enough to be an intimate enough to share clothes withand other intimacies including maybe bathing and sleeping, and ALL your secrets.
Put the two ideas together (Sanskrit like German loves composite words) and you get a self-chosen woman who is spouse and friend.
See?
See?
Catch you later. But till then go get your @HistFestUK tickets
PS a late-ish draft of my essay on gender and sexuality in Bollywood is on academia but here is the book reco https://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-South-Asian-Religion-Literature/dp/0415711525
Good morning. I finally woke up not feeling exhausted. So sharing my favourite ‘postcoloniality in Bollywood’ song. It is a brilliant example of not only entering spaces coded as white centric and imperial but resisting, subverting, occupying them
Imperial spaces had clear colour bars to keep out the natives. @SAThevoz notes that the idea of colour bar in members club was brought back to London from the colonies (read his book, Club Government. It is fascinating)
#AmarAkbarAnthony was released in 1977 but many imperial spaces in India still had a colour bar. This is a reprint of an article from 1978 about a club in Bombay https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19780831-colour-bar-still-remains-at-breach-candy-swiming-pool-in-bombay-822983-2014-03-25#close-overlay
Anthony Gonsalves infiltrating the white-only club to find Jenny is a Manmohan Desai style postcolonial two-fingers.
We often forget that Desai and his team were v politically engaged. They also had 1st hand experience of the Empire. And Desai’s films were actively anticolonial
We often forget that Desai and his team were v politically engaged. They also had 1st hand experience of the Empire. And Desai’s films were actively anticolonial
One richly coded moment is the ‘air bongos’ and the disruption created by the colonised racialised body that siezes agency, breaks out of the decorative imperial freeze and into action.
The nods to minstrelsy are not incidental once all elements of the song are taken as a whole
The nods to minstrelsy are not incidental once all elements of the song are taken as a whole
The buffonry, the wild opening speech (inc reference/quote to Disraeli), AB’s over the top comic physicality are all bortowed from Hollywood.
But located in independent India, Anthony’s actions are ‘less’ dangerous to him. Even his wooing of a woman coded as white is mostly safe
But located in independent India, Anthony’s actions are ‘less’ dangerous to him. Even his wooing of a woman coded as white is mostly safe
Anthony may get beaten up by the bad (white) guy and lose the fight because he’s drunk, but in an independent India, he is institutionally safe.
Of course, this ignores other equations of caste, class, and more but the song encapsulates a key promise of post-Empire changes
Of course, this ignores other equations of caste, class, and more but the song encapsulates a key promise of post-Empire changes
On this Sunday, and with less than two weeks to go for my Empire Shoots Back talk at @HistFestUK about postcoloniality and Bollywood, a clip with three versions of the theme song(s) from Mangal Pandey: The Rising
In my part of India - eastern UP and Bihar, the memories of 1857 are deeply entrenched even after over 150 years.
And there are physical markers inc a mango orchard in our village which has been closed off since then. That’s where East India Company hanged men and boys
And there are physical markers inc a mango orchard in our village which has been closed off since then. That’s where East India Company hanged men and boys
The fear of ‘red coats’ was alive and well in my own lifetime although it has receded a lot. And rightly so as the depradations of the Empire are not far removed from lived experience
The first time I attended a black tie thing in London there were military guys wearing red coats as their dress uniforms.
My instant reaction was to hyperventilate! I talked myself down and then attended the party. But ooof....I so wished someone had given me a trigger warning
My instant reaction was to hyperventilate! I talked myself down and then attended the party. But ooof....I so wished someone had given me a trigger warning
So here is a little write up about one of my fav places in India - Patna - memory and history. And then go check @histfest for tickets
Happy Monday. And keeping with themes of this thread, a #RajKapoor classic, about dacoits/baghees and amnesty in post-independence India
And a bit of recent reading https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/we-wouldn-t-come-charging-on-horses-like-they-show-in-bollywood-films-former-chambal-dacoits-remember-time-spent-as-bandits/story-1V8dXgX7BR50weQbN1VorJ.html
Fyi dacoits and baghees are not the same. Funnily enough, a part of my extended clans were baghees and both my grandfathers (separately) worked hard to bring them back into the mainstream.
Part of that initial nation-building exercise!
Part of that initial nation-building exercise!
Vinoba Bhave gets much credit for convincing the early surrenders but also worth noting the efforts of Jayaprakash Narayan (of the sampoorna kranti/complete revolution fame) who also worked to persuade many more.
American journo William Stewart was one of the few (only?) western journalists to cover the story.
Raj Kapoor used the long process of persuading the surrenders as the backdrop of his classic Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, complete with Pran as the baghee
Raj Kapoor used the long process of persuading the surrenders as the backdrop of his classic Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, complete with Pran as the baghee
Start your Saturday with a song, dance and Bollywood. Start it over at @HistFestUK https://histfest.com/collections/speakers/products/sunny-singh?fbclid=IwAR2hl3Fnaux-9QKub2ELrCfeIiS8Up0w6C_gsCpwHhbTlAZldikgGhdSowo go on, you know you want to....
If you follow my tl, you will know repealing #Sec377 (the colonial anti homosexuality law) has been hugely important to me. And you will recognise all the Madhuri gifs. So a week before my #histfest talk, here goes this
The film #DedhIshqiya pays tribute to Ismat Chughtai’s story Lihaaf (Quilt). Am very leery of Kishwar’s current avatar as the handmaid of Hindu far right but Manushi was an important feminist voice and this a good translation http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20file%20110/9.%20Short%20Story%20-%20Lihaaf%20%5BThe%20Quilt%5D.pdf
Chughtai was charged with obscenity by British colonial authorities. She continued to fight the case in the final years of the empire. Her own accounts tell the story best https://thewire.in/books/how-ismat-chughtai-stood-up-for-freedom-of-speech
“As I read the heading — Ismat Chughtai vs The Crown — I broke into laughter. ‘Good god, what complaint does the exalted king have against me that he has filed the suit?’”
https://www.dailyo.in/arts/ismat-chughtai-obscenity-lahore-high-court-lihaaf-in-the-name-of-those-married-women-urdu-literature/story/1/3825.html#close-overlay (also check out this anthology of Indian women’s writing edited by Annie Zaidi)
https://www.dailyo.in/arts/ismat-chughtai-obscenity-lahore-high-court-lihaaf-in-the-name-of-those-married-women-urdu-literature/story/1/3825.html#close-overlay (also check out this anthology of Indian women’s writing edited by Annie Zaidi)
And finally, for context, this read: http://daak.co.in/humour-defiance-ismat-chughtais-lihaf-trial/
So go read those cool fun links, and then check out @HistFestUK for more. Tix for my #histfest talk here https://histfest.com/products/sunny-singh
For all that UK likes to talk about the past and its ‘historical relationship’ with India, it doesn’t often try to complicate the imperial narrative. That complexity shows up in Indian director Shyam Benegal’s #Junoon
Set in 1857, based on a novella by Ruskin Bond, the much loved Indian writer of British descent, and featuring some of the best known Indian actors as well as Felicity Kendal, the film creates a complex narrative of the era
Layer upon layer of complications of race, caste, creed, class create a deeply human story of loyalties, love jealousy, and lust. All in the backdrop of one of the bloodiest periods of the Empire.
I adore Ruskin’s novella and wish more in Britain would know it. Bond occupies an unusual place as a white Indian who chose to stay on in India rather than chase the dying Empire to its various white privileging colonies or returning to England.
I hope to see Ruskin later in winter as he lives not far from my parents’ house in the Himalayas although I have missed him the last few times I have been home. Hopefully we will have tea at Chaar Dukaan.
Bond was really encouraging and supportive when my first book came out. He taught me to be supportive of new writers because that initial kindness can make or break us
One part of postcoloniality is reimagining/reconstruction of the past (these narratives tell us more about now and how we see our futures than the past). This gets even more complex when it comes to antiquity/distant past. But here’s a sexy version any way
The ‘authenticity’ nerd in me keeps shouting: “we didn’t start stitching clothes till later.” But then, hey what’s a bit of sexing up the past between friends 
Speaking about postcoloniality and Bollywood tomorrow morning at @histfest. Seems appropriate to post a song from a film with a really layered complex postcolonial narrative: #histfest
Past and present collide in the narrative. A film about history within a film about the present and filmmaking. Where the technical imperative of artificiality of cinema that is a hallmark of Bollywood is foregrounded and made explicit. #RangDeBasanti needs WAY more attention
For you last-minute chaps(just in case you are up tomorrow morning). Be great to see you https://histfest.com/collections/speakers/products/sunny-singh?fbclid=IwAR2hl3Fnaux-9QKub2ELrCfeIiS8Up0w6C_gsCpwHhbTlAZldikgGhdSowo
Apposite to end this thread on the morning of my Empire Shoots Back lecture with this. I have discussed this song in my paper on representations of gender and sexuality in Bollywood. It is SO textually rich but also......mood today 
Bollywood. My first and forever love
